Straw House for Silkworm Rearing Developed by the Government during the Meiji Period

Abstract

This study focuses on the hitherto overlooked “Straw House for Silkworm Rearing” and aimed to find new examples of appropriate technological development by the Sericultural Experiment Station and Sericultural Training Institute in the 1887-1930s.The structure of Straw House for Silkworm Rearing was analyzed by using models and photographs from the period that remain in the Nature and Science Museum, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. As a result, it was found that the structure was equipped with ventilation and heating systems that enabled the advanced sericultural technology of the time. In addition, the average temperature of the standard rearing method proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce was 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 degrees Celsius), and tests were conducted assuming rearing by a married couple. This result overturns a frequently raised hypothesis that the contribution of government sericultural educational institutions to the improvement of practical sericultural techniques during the Meiji period was lower than that of private educational institutions. In particular, the air adjustment mechanism of the Simple Straw House for Silkworm Rearing is suggestive for the development of non-electrified sericultural equipment in the present age, and contributes to solving the problem of sericultural diffusion to remote areas and poor farmers in the present age.